Coming together

Today I had a shave which I feel good enough to put in SOTD (details to follow in that forum).

It's starting to come together. I have been using a brand new Dovo Bismarck which, needless to say, wasn't shave ready. So I focused on stropping and that maded it slightly better. Then I got a coticule and that also made a difference. But it just seemed I was needing to visit the coticule every week.

Well yesterday I received my Norton 4k/8k and Norton flattening stone. Put the time in to ensure it was flat, then did the coticule -- I was amazed at how un-flat it was! Next, a quick return to Lynn's DVD to study the pyramid and honing technique. Finally, revisited the board to look up tips and variations on the pyramid.

I did a 5-5, 3-3, 1-3, 1-5 and then 12 on the coticule. Still didn't seem sharp enough using thumbpad and handpad test. So I did another smaller pyramid of 3-3, 1-3, 1-5 and then 10 on coticule. Seemed to do the trick.

That was last night. So this morning I took to my Latigo TM strop and made 30 strokes on linen and 30 on leather.

Slapped on some of Colleen's soap. First stroke like a hot knife through butter! I have ended up with my first BBS shave, no nicks, and no need to tidy up with the old Mach3. What a success!

I'm convinced I can get the razor sharper (couldn't pass the HHT, but then my wife has gorgeous curly hair, albeit a few less than yesterday, heh heh). I've just ordered my TI 4/8 Le Dandy with sharpening service from Lynn on ClassicShaving so I will soon have something incredibly sharp to use as a gold standard.

That Dovo's ass is mine! Mwa ha haaaaa! :tu

(Forgot to mention, I've now done a 180 on a shaving preference. I used to do long strokes as short ones ripped my face up. Now I realise it was because the razor wasn't sharp enough and I needed long strokes for the momentum to stop the razor from pulling. Now I tend to use short strokes all round.)

Congrats! That does sound like your putting a lot of things together. When the razor shaves that well its a great indicator that you've arrived. Don't pressure yourself too much over HHT. Run the razor through its first true shaving iteration and when your ready for an update add a few more strokes and slowly approach more and more sharp. It should be something you sneak up on very slowly. Each stroke should be thought out carefully to ensure you don't overhone.

Great shave huh?

Thanks Alan. It's very timely because my learning curve had appeared to plateau out the last few days and I was beginning to wonder if I would continue to improve or if I'd be stuck for some time.

I'm still amazed at how so many components of the shave have to be right and if you miss one, your experience is likely to be disastrous (well, at least for a noob). I.e. stretching, stropping, sharpness, beard prep, technique, etc. Any time I nick myself or have a less than satisfactory shave it's usually just one of the above missing.

I guess it's like baking a cake... if just one thing is off then it doesn't rise.

Not that I bake cakes.

Oo nooo. That would be Mrs Majurey's job.

A real man who shaves with a straight wouldn't know jack about baking cakes.

Er herm... :o

I had a very similar experience last night. Yesterday was straight day at my house:D, but I will go into that on a different thread. Anyway, I got the norton in on Thursday and my pasted paddle yesterday (thanks Tony). I lapped the norton yesterday, which almost turned disastrous, but again, another thread. Anyway, I actually took my Dovo to the pasted paddle first. I set the paddle down on the table and took my razor to it much like you would to a bench hone. I wanted to practice my technique at keeping the razor flat to the surface and with no pressure through the entire pass. I did it on the .5 chromium figuring it was a good side to practice on with less cutting. Once I was comfortable I took it to the norton. I did a normal pyramid, and then came back to it with a small pyramid. Then it went to the pasted paddle using the 1 micron side, and the progressing to the .5 sides. It shaved well. Definitely sharper then it was, but I think I can still get a finer edge on it. I am going to take it back to the 8000 and then move onto the pastes for some more fine polishing. I think that will do it.
Still, it was all very exciting.

Matt